


tea, milk & honey

by gigantomachy



Category: Firefly
Genre: Bottom Kaylee Frye, F/F, Face-Sitting, Fisting, Friends to Lovers, Gay Panic, Gentle femdom, Kink Negotiation, Lesbian Sex, POV Kaylee Frye, Sexual Experimentation, Top Inara Serra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:40:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28160301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gigantomachy/pseuds/gigantomachy
Summary: Set after the events of War Stories. After seeing Inara with the councilor, Kaylee starts to get curious about Inara's experiences with women. But her curiosity might just lead to her biting off more than she can chew.Aka the one where Kaylee gets fisted.
Relationships: Kaylee Frye/Inara Serra
Comments: 9
Kudos: 36





	tea, milk & honey

**Author's Note:**

> I've been re-watching Firefly recently. I got to War Stories, and Kaylee was staring at Inara and the councilor with so much wonder in her eyes that I was like "There is no heterosexual explanation for this" and immediately sat down to write this.
> 
> I'm primarily ignoring the existence of Mal/Inara and Simon/Kaylee because I hate both of those pairings tbh. Inara deserves better than someone who treats her the way Mal does, and while Simon is lovely, I don't buy him as a straight man. In short, Inara/Kaylee is a god-tier pairing and Joss Whedon can fight me.
> 
> Named after one of my favorite sapphic songs, ["Tea, Milk & Honey"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtiYx4nDJqM) by Oh Pep! It has a really long lead-up, but a really gorgeous (and very gay) payoff.
> 
> _My baby runs ten miles to win it  
>  She moves like her body's got a fire in it  
> She makes me swoon when she walks in the room  
> She wakes up early and she leaves too soon_
> 
> _My baby talks at a mile a minute  
>  She sings like a church with a choir in it  
> She shoots for the moon to land on the stars  
> And wakes up heavy with a sunken heart_
> 
> _She won't read the news on the TV_   
>  _Tea, milk and honey never satisfy me_

“So, spill! How was it?”

Since the last time Mal had caught her in Inara’s shuttle, Kaylee had become more cautious about the time she spent in there. She made sure to wait until she had finished her work for the day, until she would have been in her bunk anyway, before going to hang out with the Companion. Not that she didn’t like Mal, of course. He was her captain. But, not only did he frequently kick her out when he found her in the shuttle, he also said the most embarrassing things when he saw them together, like accusing Inara of “servicing crew.” Things that spoiled the easy comfort between the two of them.

Not to mention that he put Inara on edge. Sometimes Kaylee wondered if he was capable of having a conversation with her without calling her a whore or otherwise saying something rude about her occupation. Kaylee couldn’t really understand why he felt that way. In her mind, Inara had the most exciting life and career of anyone on the ship. More than anyone else Kaylee knew, everything about her life had a sense of glamour to it, of _class_. But she supposed the captain was old-fashioned like that.

Kaylee loved Inara, and she loved the captain, too. She just happened to prefer them when they were apart.

Inara was different, somehow, with Mal around. (And, for that matter, with the rest of the crew as well.) There was a sort of tension in her, a falseness to some of her smiles, buried under those layers of Companion training. But when they were alone together, just Kaylee and Inara, she seemed to let her guard down. That was why Kaylee’s favorite moments on the ship were those that she spent alone with Inara in her shuttle. Not only did she get to see glimpses of the real woman beneath the layers of politeness and grace, the shuttle itself was an incredibly beautiful place, like the chamber of a princess out of a storybook.

Kaylee loved beautiful things—like Inara’s shuttle, like Inara herself. They were so rare, out here in the black.

“How was what?” Inara responded, her voice, as always, smooth like warm honey. She didn’t have a rough accent like Kaylee did, and she never seemed to stumble over her words, either. Kaylee could happily listen to her read an ingredients list off a can of soup.

It took Kaylee a moment to respond, distracted as she was by the fingers that carded through her hair and raked gently over her scalp. She shivered slightly and closed her eyes, glad that Inara was sitting behind her and wouldn’t see the embarrassing faces she made. Finally, she got her mouth working again and said, “The councilor, of course!”

Inara’s fingertips paused in place on her head, and before Kaylee could stop herself, she felt a small noise of complaint, almost a whine, arise unbidden from the back of her throat. Inara laughed to herself at that—and god, even her _laugh_ was pretty and elegant, like a musical instrument—and resumed combing through the mechanic’s hair. “You know I can’t discuss my clients, Kaylee,” she scolded, but her voice was warm, so Kaylee didn’t feel too rejected, just embarrassed that she had forgotten.

“Sorry, ‘Nara, I should’ve remembered that,” Kaylee said quickly, not wanting to make a fool of herself. It was just that she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it for days—at least, when she wasn’t occupied by fretting over what Mal and Wash had been through, or recalling the impossible thing she had seen River do. When she wasn’t thinking about those things, though, she was remembering the sight of Inara and the councilor, and how glamorous they had looked together. She had known that Inara took female clients sometimes, but seeing for herself was another thing entirely.

They continued in silence for a moment, but Kaylee felt the words rising up in herself, unbidden. She never did have much of a filter. “I didn’t mean the councilor ‘specially, I guess. I was just wonderin’. I mean, you get to pick your own clients, so I guess you picked her for a reason.” God, why couldn’t she figure out how to ask the question burning in her mind? “When you’re not workin’, though. Do you choose women sometimes then, too? Or is it just for your job?”

“Are you trying to ask me if I’m bisexual?” Inara responded, a hint of amusement in her voice, and Kaylee was sure she must be blushing like crazy at this point, to hear it put so bluntly. But she nodded. “Like I said, dating as a Companion is complicated, and not something that I typically do. But as far as my personal preferences go, yes, I do like men and women. I prefer men, but sometimes I desire something a little different.”

Kaylee hummed under her breath, processing this new information. She knew she really should quit while she was ahead, instead of badgering the poor woman with more questions, but she was so damn curious all of a sudden. “So when you chose a woman this time, it was because you wanted something different? Something only a woman could give you?”

“Not exactly,” Inara said, her voice thoughtful. “I choose based on the individual client. I didn’t start out looking for a woman this time, but the councilor caught my eye. But then, perhaps she caught my eye because I wanted to change things up a little.”

 _This_ , right here, was why Kaylee liked to get Inara all to herself. When she let her guard down, she would share things like this with her. It was hard to tell with Inara, given that she was as skilled at social interactions as Jayne was at shooting, or Kaylee at repairing engines, but she seemed to be more genuine, more _herself_ , in these moments. It filled Kaylee with a sort of warmth to believe that Inara would talk to her like this, and not to anyone else on the ship.

“I can see why you would,” Kaylee said, finding herself smiling. “I love the crew, but they can be a bit too…”

When Kaylee trailed off, Inara jumped in to finish the thought for her. “Yes, the testosterone levels on this ship _are_ sometimes overwhelming.”

Kaylee nodded quickly, still grinning. She pictured Mal punching Inara’s client at that party, or Wash getting all possessive over Zoe, or Jayne just, well, being Jayne. That was part of why she liked Simon: he was soft-spoken and gentle, most of the time. Not unlike Inara, she realized.

Before she could stop herself, Kaylee blurted out, “What do you like about it? Bein’ with another woman, I mean. I don’t mean to pry or nothin’, I just never…”

Inara sighed thoughtfully. As she considered her words, she continued playing with Kaylee’s hair, but instead of styling it or massaging her scalp, she mostly just ran her fingers through it, picking up sections of hair and letting them slip through her fingers. Kaylee got the impression that Inara was doing it more for herself than for Kaylee’s benefit, and something about that made Kaylee happy. So much of Inara’s work seemed to be about doing things for other people. Kaylee hoped the Companion might be comfortable enough with her to be a little selfish.

“As I told the councilor the other day, one cannot always be oneself in the company of men,” Inara finally said. That was another thing Kaylee liked about her: she chose her words so carefully, so even though she didn’t speak as much (at least compared to Kaylee, who was a hopeless chatterbox), everything that she said was meaningful.

“Can you be yourself around me?” Kaylee asked suddenly, staring down at her own hands.

“Yes, now that I think about it, I always can. You have a way of making a person feel at ease,” Inara replied, a note of something like surprise in her voice, as if she was just realizing it herself. Kaylee couldn’t stop herself from twisting around to beam happily at the Companion sitting on the bed behind her. As she turned, Inara’s hand slipped from her hair to her cheek.

Kaylee froze, her smile faltering on her face, suddenly too aware of her own quickening pulse. It was stupid of her. It wasn’t like she and Inara didn’t touch all the time. Hugs, kisses on the cheek, excessive hair-styling, all that jazz. But after their conversation, and after seeing Inara with the councilor, two things that made the concept of Inara kissing women much more salient in Kaylee’s mind, she was caught off guard by how close they were.

Inara, and the rest of her shuttle, had this distinctive smell to them: light perfume, incense, tea with honey, and, at times, hookah smoke. The smell was getting to Kaylee, all of a sudden, flooding her senses and making her feel almost light-headed. The rest of the situation didn’t help much: Inara’s soft hand touching her cheek so delicately, her warm dark eyes, the small smile visible on her bright red lips. Kaylee felt like she was in sensory overload, all of a sudden. She had never seen anyone as beautiful as Inara, and up close like this, her presence was just shy of too much. Kaylee was certain her face must be bright red at this point, because she could feel it burning, and she glanced down at Inara’s lips before she could stop herself.

 _Kaylee Frye, what the hell are you doing?_ she reprimanded herself, and with a sharp intake of breath, she quickly broke free and turned her head back around. _Inara’s a Companion. It’s her job to be breathtaking; she’s not doing it for me. The last thing she would want is for the crew to start hittin’ on her. She already gets enough awkward staring from Mal and Jayne._ Kaylee felt gross, somehow, almost predatory. The _reason_ Inara was so relaxed around her was because Kaylee didn’t want that kind of thing from her. She couldn’t go getting all confused and mess that up.

“I should get going,” Kaylee mumbled, pushing herself quickly to her feet. “I forgot to check on something in the engine room.”

She hadn’t looked back at Inara yet, but she heard the Companion climb to her feet behind her, and before she could bolt for the door, Inara said, “You haven’t offended me, Kaylee. It’s perfectly normal.”

Kaylee froze in place, finally turning back to meet her friend’s eyes. Inara was smiling, so she figured she couldn’t be that bothered. Still, she could be talking about something else. “Whatcha mean?” Kaylee responded, trying to keep her tone light.

“Being curious about women. For you to see a close friend with another woman for the first time, it’s only natural that you might start wondering, or seeing someone in a different light. It’s okay for you to be attracted to me.” Kaylee’s breath caught in her throat, and she must have had an awfully stupid expression on her face, because Inara laughed slightly to herself. “You’ve been giving me these starry-eyed looks ever since you saw me with the councilor. If I couldn’t recognize the signs that someone is attracted to me, I wouldn’t be very good at my job, now would I?”

Coming from anyone else, it would have sounded presumptuous and arrogant. But from Inara, it just seemed like a statement of fact. Kaylee supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised. She wore her heart on her sleeve, and Inara had been through years of training to read people as well as she did. Still, she couldn’t help but blush.

At the same time, Inara’s words sparked something in her chest. That something was immediately crushed when Inara went on, “I hope you understand that nothing can happen between us.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course!” Kaylee said hurriedly, forcing a smile onto her face. “I didn’t mean anything by it. You’re real pretty, is all. I wasn’t thinking you were interested in me or nothin’. I know I’m not much compared to your clients.”

Inara’s face fell, and she took a step forward, putting herself back in Kaylee’s personal space. That didn’t really help matters. After being rejected before she even figured out for herself why she had been staring at Inara like that, Kaylee really wanted to just be left alone to get her head on straight. But that didn’t seem likely to happen, with Inara grabbing her by the shoulder once more.

“Kaylee, you are a beautiful woman, and if you showed up on my client board as a stranger, I would be honored to choose you.” Kaylee felt her face burn at that, but even though Inara was an excellent liar, she really did believe that she meant the compliment. They were friends, so Inara wouldn’t lie to her about something like that. Right? “It’s nothing to do with you. My policy is that I never service members of the crew. It would complicate things too much.”

Maybe Inara was just trying to let her down easy, but it did make sense. Especially when she pictured Mal’s confrontation with Inara’s client on Persephone. She didn’t much fancy getting punched out by the captain. So she reached up to cover Inara’s hand with her own and gave it a squeeze. “Really, Inara, it’s alright. You don’t need to explain. I don’t want to cause any trouble for you.”

At Inara’s smile, Kaylee knew that things would be okay between them, but she still figured it was best that she leave for awhile. Just until she could get this—crush? was that what it was?—under control. So, with one last awkward smile, she turned to leave.

Just as Kaylee reached the door of the shuttle, though, something occurred to her. Kaylee didn’t think of herself as a brave person. After all, just the other day, she had completely choked in the middle of that gunfight with Niska’s men. But, right in that moment, she found herself feeling surprisingly brave. Brave enough to say, “What if it wasn’t a service?”

When she looked back at Inara, the Companion looked genuinely puzzled, and she rushed to explain herself. “I mean, you choose your clients, but when you sleep with them, it’s for them, right? It’s a service?”

“Yes,” Inara said, her brow still furrowed. “More or less. I don’t have to fulfill everything my clients ask for, but the point of the encounter is to give them what they need.”

“Right,” Kaylee said, blushing at her own audacity. “I don’t mean to push or make assumptions or nothin’, but what if you told me how to give you what _you_ need? Then it wouldn’t be like you were doin’ me a service. It could be for you, instead. No Companion skills, no requests, just us, doing whatever you want to do.”

She already felt stupid for saying it, even as the words came out of her mouth. It wasn’t like she thought she could argue Inara into changing her mind. It was just a feeling she had. Kaylee didn’t know what Inara’s clients were like, but she knew what men were like, or at least the ones she had slept with, and many of them weren’t exactly the most considerate of lovers. If Inara wanted a break from men, maybe she’d want a chance to focus on her own needs for a change.

Inara was looking at her now, a strange expression on her face. Kaylee wasn’t sure she’d ever seen that look in Inara’s eyes before, at least not directed at her, but she didn’t need any Companion training to guess that it was interest. She held her breath as Inara approached her, seeming almost to size her up with her eyes, and when Inara leaned in to kiss her gently on the cheek, she had to squeeze her own eyes shut, head swimming with the scent of perfume and the feeling of Inara’s soft black hair brushing her skin.

“Come back to my shuttle tonight, after everyone’s asleep,” Inara murmured, just next to her ear, and Kaylee inhaled sharply in surprise. “And don’t tell anyone. If anyone finds out, I’ll have to say that you’re lying. I _cannot_ have this getting back to the captain.”

Kaylee pulled back quickly and jerked her head up and down, feeling something close to panic. “Yes ma’am!” she said, a little too loudly, then winced at herself. Inara was starting to smirk, watching her with raised eyebrows, so without further ado, she nodded one more time and practically ran out the door.

* * *

Kaylee spent the rest of the day in a daze. Try as she might, she was still unsure how she had gone from “I wonder what being with a woman is like?” to “Am I attracted to Inara?” to basically propositioning her best friend on the ship in the span of twenty minutes. Left to her own devices, she probably would have stewed on that moment of attraction for months, wondering what it meant and whether it was real, but somehow Inara had instantly cut right through to the heart of it, leaving Kaylee with whiplash, scrambling to catch up.

She was beginning to feel almost sympathetic for Inara’s clients. If Inara could do this to Kaylee when she wasn’t even trying, what must it feel like to be hit with the full power of her Companion training? No wonder they were always falling hopelessly in love with her and begging her to let them steal her away for themselves.

It was good that Kaylee had already finished her work for the day, because she was certain she would have been absolutely useless at it. She could barely handle interacting with the rest of the crew without coming across as a big spaz. Over dinner, for example, she had been so spacey that both Mal and Zoe had asked if she was alright, and at one point, when Inara made eye contact with her from across the table and winked, she’d missed her mouth with her glass and spilled half of her water down the front of her shirt.

At least that last mishap, embarrassing as it was, gave Kaylee an excuse to leave the table early, something that she appreciated not only because she was too nervous to eat, but also because she suddenly realized she was wearing overalls and covered head to toe in engine grease, not to mention that she hadn’t shaved anywhere in about two years.

 _Shit._ Kaylee paced around in her bunk for awhile, wondering what she should do. The only fancy outfit she had was that dress from the party, and she didn’t even own a razor. If she’d had a date (if that was what this was) with anyone else, like Simon, or some boy on one of the planets they visited, she would go to Inara for help. She was sure her friend would loan her something nice to wear, or fix her hair and makeup, or maybe even have an extra razor she could take. But she couldn’t go to Inara for this, could she? Especially not after embarrassing herself in front of the Companion at dinner. She would be lucky if Inara hadn’t already changed her mind and decided Kaylee was too much of a mess for her to find attractive.

Finally, Kaylee accepted her fate and settled for a tank top, her cleanest pair of jeans, and the most matching-est pair of underwear she could dig out of her drawer. She didn’t have time for a shower, but she managed to at least wash the engine grease off her face and use a little bit of her precious tube of mascara.

Then, immediately after getting dressed, she started worrying about the exact opposite. What if she was trying too hard? If she ran into someone on the way to the shuttle, wearing clean pants and mascara and all, they’d be sure to know something was up. With a loud groan, she wet a washcloth and prepared to scrub the mascara off again, but she stopped just short of touching it to her face. It was her only tube of mascara, after all, and she wasn’t sure when she’d get another one. Luxuries like makeup were limited, living a life like hers. She just couldn’t bring herself to waste it.

* * *

Kaylee waited a few hours, until she was certain everyone must have gone to sleep, and then she waited a little longer. Finally, she crept out of her bunk, making her way down the familiar path to Inara’s shuttle. The way there was dark, but never quiet. The sound of the engines, always present, soothed something inside of her. _At least there’s one girl I know how to deal with_ , she thought fondly, patting the wall of the ship as she walked.

Inara was waiting at the door for her, perfectly composed as always, and when she let her into the shuttle, Kaylee realized that she had never before felt so off-balance in Inara’s company. There was usually such an easy comfort between the two of them. She could only hope that, whatever else happened, tonight wouldn’t spoil it.

“I must confess, it’s been a long time since I’ve entertained anyone solely for pleasure, rather than work,” Inara said, settling down on her bed, and fuck, Kaylee had been sitting on that bed with her so casually only a few hours ago, but now it was suddenly intimidating. “As a Companion, there are rituals and scripts to adhere to, beginning with the tea ceremony. I find myself having to remember how to go about this without those scripts to follow.”

Kaylee smiled a little at that, though she still stood next to the bed, unable to bring herself to sit. While Inara seemed perfectly composed, as always, if her words were to be believed, even _she_ was feeling a little nervous. It made Kaylee feel less alone, and also relieved that Inara could still speak so freely with her. It made her want to try to be brave, too.

“Well, I’m no trained Companion, and it’s been a long time for me, too, but if I remember right, these things usually start with kissing.”

Inara laughed at this, soft and delighted, and Kaylee couldn’t stop herself from grinning, feeling a sort of pride that she could say the right things to make Inara happy. She was so distracted by the other woman’s laughter that she barely had time to realize what was happening before Inara rose back to her feet and pulled her in for a kiss.

It was different than any kiss Kaylee had had before. They were almost the same height, and Inara was so _soft_ , the smell of her perfume so intoxicating from up close. The texture of her lips was slightly different, too, probably because of her lipstick, and Kaylee found herself wondering if it would rub off on her face. But then, she figured Companions probably had access to such high-quality cosmetics that they never had to worry about problems as pedestrian as smudged lipstick.

The physical sensations, in short, were quite different. But Kaylee was most surprised at how much of it felt the same. There was the same rush of excitement, the same desire to almost melt into the other person. This morning, she hadn’t even known enough to wonder if she might be attracted to women. And now, well, maybe some of it was just because it had been such a long time, and that Inara was unsurprisingly an amazing kisser, but it felt not just equal to any kiss she’d had with a man in the past, but _better_.

Kaylee wasn’t sure where to put her hands, or even where she was allowed to, so she wrapped them around Inara’s neck, pressing herself insistently into the taller woman’s arms. Then Inara’s tongue brushed her lower lip, and someone let out an embarrassingly breathy noise, almost a mewl, and she only realized it must have been herself when she felt Inara grin into the kiss. Inara was wearing one of her beautiful silky two-pieces, and the fabric felt expensive against Kaylee’s skin, almost liquid in its fluidity.

Some part of Kaylee’s mind was still anxious. She felt coarse, almost, like a peasant faced with a queen, terrified that her clumsy hands couldn’t touch someone so elegant and perfect without messing it up somehow. But at the same time, she knew Inara, probably better than anyone else on the ship, and she felt incredibly safe in her arms. When Inara’s tongue slipped into her mouth, it drove away the rest of her anxiety, as there was no more room left in her mind beyond the sensation of being kissed by Inara. She didn’t even notice her legs wobbling, nor Inara smoothly laying her down on the bed, until she suddenly found herself sprawled out on her back with Inara straddling her hips.

Inara pulled back just a bit, and her black hair hung down like a curtain around the two of them. In the low light, Kaylee could see the saturation even in the black, the impossible richness of its shine and the breathtaking flow of it. Before she could stop herself, she reached up one hand wonderingly and ran her fingers through the strands, marveling at how there wasn’t a single tangle.

Then, with a shock, she realized that Inara had been talking ever since she pulled back from the kiss. Kaylee quickly snatched her hand away, blushing, and said, “Sorry, sorry, what?” Her voice had a strange breathless quality that she could never remember hearing in herself before.

“I was asking if you were doing okay,” Inara said, a hint of amusement in her voice. How did she always sound so together? Kaylee felt like she had two brain cells available for anything other than thinking about how pretty Inara was.

So, of course, that was basically what she said, having no filter even at the best of times. “You’re just real pretty, is all,” Kaylee informed her sincerely. “Got a bit overwhelmed. Can’t believe someone as beautiful as you actually wants me.” She couldn’t seem to form complete sentences, not with the way Inara’s top was riding up to expose her toned stomach, and how the _hell_ had she never realized how very attracted to women she was? It seemed so obvious that she wasn’t sure how she had ever missed it before.

“You’re sweet,” Inara said, reaching down to run one hand over Kaylee’s cheek, and Kaylee shamelessly leaned into the touch. “And very beautiful. You don’t have anything to feel insecure about, Kaylee.” She paused for a moment. “If you’re feeling overwhelmed, though, we could take things slower. I could make us some tea and we could just sit for awhile.”

As nice as that sounded, Kaylee had more pressing issues on her mind. “Would we have to stop kissin’ for that?” she asked.

“Well, yes, unless you have a very unusual method of drinking tea,” Inara responded, her face so controlled that it took Kaylee a moment to process that she was making fun.

Kaylee laughed so much that she snorted, then immediately covered her mouth, feeling embarrassed again. But Inara didn’t seem bothered, so she decided to trust that she didn’t mind. “In that case, no ruttin’ way,” she said, and when Inara smiled down at her, she surged back up to kiss her, wrapping both arms around the Companion’s back and pulling her down again.

Inara shifted on top of her, moving from straddling her hips to entangling their legs together, and then, _fuck_ , her thigh pressed down right in between Kaylee’s, and Kaylee let out a moan into Inara’s mouth, hips jerking slightly upwards in response to the friction.

Kaylee wanted to complain when Inara broke the kiss again, but any words she was going to say turned into breathless, pleading noises as Inara kissed down the side of her jawline. At the feeling of Inara’s skilled mouth on her neck, she whined, squirming against the thigh between hers, and tightened her arms around her back.

Then Inara’s mouth was right by her ear, whispering, “You’re so _responsive_ , Kaylee. I’m going to have so much fun with you.” Most of Kaylee’s brain had abandoned her by this point, but that sounded pretty good to whatever was left behind, so she nodded quickly, shivering a little at the breath ghosting over her ear, breaking out in goosebumps at the laugh she got in response. She was never going to be able to hear Inara laugh again without soaking her panties through, but she could live with that. “Can I undress you?” Inara asked.

And, like there was a direct line between her brain and her mouth, Kaylee immediately blurted out, “‘Nara, you can do anything you want to me.”

Inara undressed her with more care and grace than Kaylee figured her clothes had ever been shown. Kaylee wouldn’t have minded hurrying it up a little, but at the same time, she liked watching Inara, seeing the way she paid attention to every little detail. Even if she wasn’t “servicing” Kaylee, she was still a master of her domain, and this was the first time Kaylee had had the privilege to see her do what she did best. She took her time, running her lips and tongue over each inch of skin that she revealed, and when she had Kaylee topless and first closed her lips around her nipple, rolling the other breast in her free hand, it was all that Kaylee could do to close her eyes and toss her head back into the pillow and lose herself in the sensations, the muscles of her stomach quivering at every touch.

When Inara pulled back, though, so that Kaylee could get her pants and underwear off, she had a chance to catch her breath and remember what she was meant to be doing. “Hey, Inara, you should get naked,” she said, inwardly cringing a little at her own bluntness. “I’d do it, but your outfit is so beautiful and fancy. I don’t want to mess it up or nothin’.” She paused. “Also, this is supposed to be about what _you_ want, so please tell me what you’d like. I might not have much practice, but I’m a fast learner.”

After all, as nice as it was, the plan wasn’t for Inara to take charge and show Kaylee the pleasures of being with a woman. That would be for Kaylee’s benefit. Inexperienced as she might be, she wanted this to be for Inara. Inara spent so much time catering to the needs of other people; it was her job, and what she was trained to do. Kaylee wanted tonight to feel like play to Inara, not like work.

Then Inara was taking her clothes off, unwinding lengths of fabric from around her body, and Kaylee was struck dumb for a moment at both the intricacy of the removal process and the beauty being uncovered. Inara wasn’t wearing any undergarments, and she had the most flawless golden skin, with dark nipples and full curves. A small part of Kaylee felt insecure again, given that, as she expected, Inara was shaved smooth everywhere but a small patch between her legs, while Kaylee’s legs, armpits, and bush were all in a right state, but it was difficult to care too much about her own insecurities when Inara was _naked_ and _right there_ and she could probably touch her if she wanted.

In fact, that sounded like a great idea, so Kaylee reached out with one tentative hand and ran her fingers down Inara’s side, tracing over the swell of her hip, feeling the soft give of the skin beneath her fingertips. “Beautiful,” she whispered, under her breath, in the same un-self-conscious way she might use when talking to her ship, and a genuine smile spread across Inara’s face in response.

“I’m enjoying myself plenty,” Inara said softly, covering Kaylee’s hand with her own so that it lay flat on her hip. “But if you’d like to do something for me, lie back down on your back. I’ll guide you through it.”

Kaylee immediately laid back down, eager to do as Inara said. She was rewarded by the sight of Inara swinging one leg across her body to straddle her again, but this time over her chest, rather than her hips. She looked so perfect up there, towering over her like a queen, like she was exactly where she was meant to be. Kaylee took in the sight of her eagerly: the softness of her stomach, the shadowed undersides of her breasts, the hair falling in waves over her shoulder, and then Inara was moving forwards over her until her thighs bracketed Kaylee’s head.

“Is this alright for you?” Inara’s soft voice came from far above her, and Kaylee hoped she wasn’t imagining the heat in it, that Inara really was eager for what they were about to do. And it was more than alright. This wasn’t something Kaylee had pictured—in truth, she hadn’t really known what to picture, other than kissing Inara and touching her skin—but it felt right, somehow.

“Shiny,” she responded, then quickly continued, “I may not be good at first. Please tell me how to do it better. Don’t pretend you like it if you don’t, okay?” Kaylee might not be a Companion, but she certainly wasn’t a stranger to the pressure to feign pleasure to soothe a man’s ego. She didn’t want Inara doing that for her.

“Alright,” Inara said, a definite hint of breathlessness in her voice, and then she shifted forward just enough to line up with Kaylee’s mouth. Kaylee ran her eyes over the vulva in front of her, startled by the fact that, despite having her own, she had never been quite so close to one before. Other than a short, neatly trimmed patch of hair, Inara was hairless, but she had the same musky smell that Kaylee knew from her own body, and she felt a strange sense of comfort to know that, underneath all the fancy clothes, Inara was just the same as her.

She could just see Inara looking down at her from above as, with two delicate fingers, she spread her own lips to expose her clit. “I assume you’re familiar with this,” Inara said. “Just try to do what you like to have done to yourself. I’ll tell you if you need to change it.”

If someone had asked Kaylee the day before what part of eating pussy would worry her the most, she probably would have said it was not knowing if she would enjoy it or be grossed out by it. She didn’t even like to look at her own in that much detail, so getting up close and personal with someone else’s sounded intimidating. But now that she was here, the only worry in her mind was that she wouldn’t be good enough to please Inara. Despite her trepidation, Inara was just as beautiful down here as everywhere else, and so Kaylee took a deep breath and, with a flat tongue, licked up the whole length of Inara’s slit.

Inara was already wet, and Kaylee was shocked by how much she liked the slick taste of her on her tongue. She alternated between open-mouthed kisses to the thighs on either side of her and long, slow licks up the pussy in front of her, just trying to get her warmed up. Kaylee liked to be worked up to it, when someone did this for her, and since Inara hadn’t complained yet, she figured she must be doing okay.

Then, seeing to get impatient, Inara let out a soft noise and rolled her hips downward insistently, grinding herself on Kaylee’s mouth. Acquiescing easily, Kaylee wrapped both arms around Inara’s thighs to pull her down and threw herself into it, focusing her attention more closely on her clit.

“Point your tongue a little more,” Inara gasped, and her voice was lower, and roughly, than Kaylee had ever heard it. She obliged, flicking more firmly against Inara’s clit, and was rewarded with a soft moan and another roll of Inara’s hips. Kaylee closed her eyes to focus more, warmth spreading through her at the thought that Inara seemed pleased with her.

As Inara’s motions above her became more wild, less controlled, rubbing herself almost frantically on Kaylee’s mouth, she decided to try something new. Closing her lips around the base of Inara’s clit, she formed a sort of seal and sucked it into her mouth, almost like she would with a man. This way, the head of Inara’s clit was somewhat exposed from the hood, held in place where it was sucked into Kaylee’s mouth, and she flicked her tongue quickly against the exposed flesh.

 _That_ got a reaction, and Kaylee was pretty certain it was genuine by the noises that Inara made, unrestrained and graceless, bucking down against her tongue. Kaylee’s own arousal was not gone but pushed entirely to the wayside, her world reduced to the weight of Inara’s body over her, surrounding her face, the taste of her juices on her tongue.

She heard and felt Inara lean forward, bracing one arm on the bed frame, and she was repeating, “ _Yes_ , Kaylee, that’s so good, don’t stop, fuck, yes,” before trailing off into a wordless cry as her thighs clenched and shook around Kaylee’s head. Kaylee let up on the intensity but kept up a gentle pressure with her tongue until Inara pulled free and crawled down her body.

“I needed that,” Inara panted, and then she was pulling Kaylee into a messy, almost possessive, shockingly dirty kiss, not seeming to care about the way Kaylee’s face was basically covered in her own juices. It felt like a reward, to be able to make Inara cum like that and to be kissed with such desire right afterwards. She felt like Inara was laying a claim on every part of her body that she touched.

“I did good?” Kaylee asked when she finally pulled away. She was pretty confident of the answer, but at the same time, she wanted to hear Inara say it.

“You’re a natural,” Inara confirmed, still out of breath, and Kaylee just beamed up at her, stupidly happy to have pleased her. The Companion was practically glowing with satisfaction, and for about the millionth time in the past half hour, Kaylee thought she had never seen anyone so beautiful. Inara was always beautiful, of course, but she had never been so beautiful to her as right now, sweaty and disheveled and flushed with pleasure. “Now, though, I _would_ like to do something for you in return, if you have any ideas.”

In all of her focus on pleasing Inara, Kaylee had mostly forgotten that things would be turned around at some point. In all honesty, she would have happily come back to this bed a dozen times just for Inara to ride her face and send her away untouched. Not that she would turn down reciprocation, of course, but she wasn’t quite sure what the options even were, other than the obvious.

“My brain’s not working too good at the moment,” Kaylee confessed with a small laugh. “Can’t quite think of anything. I mean, you’re the expert…” She trailed off, her eyes lighting up as a thought came to her. “ _Oh._ You _are_ an expert.”

Inara raised her eyebrows, giving Kaylee an amused look as she waited for her to elaborate.

“I mean, at the Academy, you must’ve learned to do all sorts of things that I ain’t even heard of, right?” Kaylee asked, barreling on before Inara could answer. “Do you get to use all of it with your clients? Or is there anything you like doin’ and haven’t gotten to do in awhile?”

Inara made a thoughtful noise. “Now that you mention it, there _are_ a few things. They teach so many things at the Academy, it would be impossible to use _all_ of them, and while some of my clients are creative, the tastes of men are often a little predictable.”

Kaylee lit up at that. She felt like Inara had all sorts of sexy secrets, and if she was lucky, Inara might choose to share one with her. It would probably be more fun than anything she could come up with, and she always liked trying new things. And she wanted Inara to have fun with her. “Alright then, surprise me!”

Seeming amused by Kaylee’s enthusiasm, Inara laughed softly and said, “I’ll need slightly more guidance than that. I want us both to enjoy this. Is there anything you definitely don’t want?”

“Hmm…” Kaylee did her best to think, which was really very difficult when Inara was being all naked at her. “I don’t think I like pain very much?” she said, peeking at the Companion like she was checking if she had the right answer. “I don’t reckon I’d enjoy being whipped or anything really rough like that.”

“That’s perfectly alright. Thank you for giving me something to work with.” Inara paused for a moment. “When you pleasure yourself, do you prefer exterior or interior stimulation?” Seeing Kaylee’s confused look, she tried again. “Do you penetrate yourself with something, or just play with your clit?”

“Oh!” Kaylee blushed slightly, even though she knew she should be able to talk about sex with someone she had just eaten out. “Uh, both? But I like the penetration part the best. I’ve got some toys for that.”

“Are these toys large?” Inara asked, and Kaylee blushed again, hesitating, but then she nodded. “Okay then, I have something in mind. If I do this correctly, it won’t hurt you, but there may be some discomfort at first. Still, once you get used to it, it should be very intense and pleasurable.”

“I like intense,” Kaylee said, though she was a little nervous about the “discomfort” part. “Let’s do it.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to know what I’m going to do?” Inara asked.

“I trust you.”

And Kaylee did. Inara was her best friend on the ship, not to mention a professional, not to mention another woman. She trusted her to be gentle with her, and to stop if she got hurt. So if Inara thought this sex act, probably something Kaylee had never even heard of, would be enjoyable, Kaylee didn’t need any more information than that.

Inara guided Kaylee to lay down on her back again, leaning over her to kiss her as she fiddled with something on her nightstand with her free hand. Kaylee wondered what she was doing for a moment, but then lost her train of thought as she realized she hadn’t even played with Inara’s breasts yet. So she started kissing her way down Inara’s chest, which occupied most of her attention for awhile (as well as momentarily distracting Inara from whatever she was doing).

Then Inara’s hand was between her legs, and Kaylee was wet already, but she could still tell that Inara’s hand was covered in lube by the way some of it rubbed off on the inside of her thighs. Inara began by rubbing small circles on Kaylee’s clit, and from the moment she first touched her, Kaylee found herself moaning and trembling underneath her, wordlessly pleading for more.

When Inara slipped the first finger in, Kaylee barely felt it, being used to her toys and all. Inara took so long to add the second finger that Kaylee gazed reproachfully up at her, a little impatient. “You don’t have to take it so slow for a few fingers,” she complained. “No offense, ‘Nara, but your fingers aren’t _that_ big.”

Inara gave her a Look, but she added a third finger almost immediately, shutting Kaylee up. _That’s more like it._ A moment later, though, she added a fourth, and Kaylee gasped at the stretch. Inara kept kissing her, leaning over Kaylee with her hair hanging in her face, biting her lower lip and swallowing the sounds Kaylee made as she slowly twisted and pumped her fingers.

“Can you take more, sweetheart?” Inara murmured, and Kaylee felt her face turning red at the pet name, and the way Inara talked to her so calmly, as if she were just offering her tea or something rather than asking permission to put all of her fingers up Kaylee’s snatch.

Kaylee nodded again, despite the slight burning sensation, and then Inara had all five fingers inside of her, bent into a sort of cone shape: not very large at the tip, where her fingertips met, but the girth increased quickly below that, the base stretching Kaylee farther than any of her toys. It didn’t hurt yet, but she understood what Inara had meant by _intense_.

At least, she thought that she did. She was forced to reconsider that belief when Inara said, “Okay, Kaylee, I want you to take slow, deep breaths and try to relax.” Kaylee didn’t think relaxing was exactly possible in her current situation, but she kept her eyes on Inara’s face and tried to match the other woman’s breathing, taking long, shaky breaths of air.

Then the pressure was increasing, stretching her wider, so intense that it bordered on pain, and Kaylee had some idea of what Inara was trying to do, but she couldn’t imagine it actually working. She felt like she would split in half before Inara could get any deeper inside of her. But then, just as she was beginning to doubt, Inara twisted her wrist slightly and _pushed_ , and Kaylee felt herself open around Inara’s knuckles as they popped through her entrance, and then Inara’s entire hand was inside of her, swallowed up to the wrist.

Kaylee let out a sharp cry, not even realizing how loud it was until Inara’s free hand slapped over her mouth. “Kaylee, sweetheart, this shuttle is not entirely soundproof. I need you to be quieter for me, okay?” And Kaylee wanted to agree, but then Inara’s hand flexed inside of her, and before she could stop herself, she moaned loudly against her palm. Inara laughed. “I’ll just keep my hand here, then.”

Inara knelt between Kaylee’s spread legs, one hand buried wrist-deep inside of her, the other over her mouth. When she twisted her hand again, Kaylee opened her mouth to cry out, and Inara swiftly slipped the fingers of her free hand into her open mouth. That was better—it gave Kaylee something to suck on, to keep her quiet. She just felt so _full_ , more than she had ever experienced with a man or on her own. Every slight movement of Inara’s hand sent shock-waves of pleasure through her entire body.

Then Inara rocked her hand inside of Kaylee, harder now, rubbing against the inner walls, flexing her fingers outward to increase the pressure and the sensation of being filled to the point that Kaylee couldn’t take anymore. Inara was looking down at her with a calm, almost imperious air, and said, “Cum for me,” voice soft and composed and deadly as she fucked her. Kaylee would have screamed if it weren’t for the fingers in her mouth. Her back arched, and she felt her whole body seize up, her cunt spasming around the fist inside of her, and Inara just _kept going_ , drawing wave after wave of pleasure out of her, until she couldn’t take any more.

Kaylee collapsed bonelessly back on the bed, letting out a string of profanity in Mandarin, pausing only to wince at the strange tugging sensation of Inara slipping her hand back out. Finally, switching back to English, she summed up her opinions about what just happened with an emphatic, “Holy _shit_.”

“You enjoyed it, then?”

“I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to look at your hands again without blushing,” Kaylee admitted, still trying to catch her breath. She could feel her hair sticking to the side of her sweaty face and knew she must look like an absolute mess at this point. She could only hope that she looked cute and well-fucked rather than demented.

Inara smiled at her, laying down on her side to look at Kaylee’s profile, and Kaylee turned her head to meet her eyes. Part of her wanted to ask when they could do that again, but she wasn’t sure if it was just a one-time thing, and she wanted to enjoy the moment awhile longer before risking the sting of rejection.

“You look beautiful like this,” Inara told her, and she reached out to touch Kaylee’s cheek, heedless of the fluids covering her hand. Kaylee beamed sleepily and nuzzled into her touch, enjoying the smell of herself on Inara’s fingers, the dirtiness of it. If some part of her had believed that being with another woman would be less carnal, more chaste and wholesome, she had been thoroughly disabused of that notion somewhere around the time she’d had Inara’s fist in one end of her and three of her fingers in the other.

Kaylee scooted forward just enough to press their foreheads together, and they lay like that for awhile, too sated and sticky to even cuddle. But when she felt sleep creeping up on her, she opened her eyes with a sigh. “Guess I should be gettin’ back to my bunk, huh?” she said, already regretting it. “Don’t want anyone to catch me sneaking out of your shuttle in the morning.”

Inara made a thoughtful noise. “It’s no secret that we’re friends. If anyone asks, we could say that we fell asleep gossiping or something like that.”

“Just gals being pals,” Kaylee said, giggling to herself. “Not a bad idea, but I’m afraid I ain’t the best liar. If anyone tries to joke about me doing the walk of shame, I’ll probably start blushing and stammering and give the whole thing away.”

The amused look on Inara’s face suggested she could picture that all too well. “Let me get a wet washcloth, so we can at least clean up before you go,” she said, and even though Kaylee was the one who suggested it, she felt a flash of sadness at the idea of leaving the shuttle. With the crew asleep and the door shut, the two of them doing things to each other that no one on the ship would ever expect, it felt like their own secret little world. She didn’t want to break it.

“You know, I undid all your hard work,” Kaylee said, and when Inara gave her a confused look, she gestured at the mess on top of her head. “You spent so long brushing my hair, just for us to mess it all up again.”

Inara smiled. “Would you like me to brush it out again before you leave?”

They both knew that it was an excuse, just a way for Kaylee to drag out their time together a little longer, but Inara didn’t seem to mind. So Kaylee grinned up at her from where she lay on the bed. “‘Nara,” she confided, “I can’t think of anything I’d like more.”

**Author's Note:**

> Uh I have never given or received a fisting so I hope the description wasn't too off-base


End file.
